Three years after a 68-year-old man was shot and killed on a rural property in the Fallen Timber area south of Sundre, his 63-year-old wife has been convicted in the death.
An eight-woman, four-men Calgary Court of Queen's Bench jury found Heather Wilson Duncan guilty of manslaughter and not guilty of second-degree murder on Nov. 26. She will be sentenced on Nov. 28.
The verdict came following a three-week trial before Justice Alan McLeod.
Manslaughter is culpable homicide where there is no intent to kill, unlike second-degree murder which includes deliberation.
Barry Alexander Duncan died of a single shotgun shot to the head on Dec. 10, 2010.
During Wilson Duncan's trial the jury heard that the couple were arguing a short time before he produced a shotgun and it went off.
In a 911 call following the shooting, Wilson Duncan told the dispatcher: “I killed him. I killed my husband. I just killed a person. He's dead in the living room. My husband is dead.”
Testifying in her own defence, Wilson Duncan said the shooting was an accident, with the gun discharging after Barry Duncan tried to push the gun into her hand.
“He was pushing the gun at me,” she testified. “I was grabbing the gun and trying to take it away. Then he fell down.”
